Clearing <input type='file' /> using

Question

Is it possible to clear an <input type='file' /> control value with jQuery? I've tried the following:

$('#control').attr({ value: '' }); 

But it's not working.

Answer 1

Jquery is supposed to take care of the cross-browser/older browser issues for you.

This works on modern browsers that I tested: Chromium v25, Firefox v20, Opera v12.14

Using jquery 1.9.1

HTML

<input id="fileopen" type="file" value="" />
<button id="clear">Clear</button>

Jquery

$("#clear").click(function () {
    $("#fileopen").val("");
});

On jsfiddle

The following javascript solution also worked for me on the browsers mention above.

document.getElementById("clear").addEventListener("click", function () {
    document.getElementById("fileopen").value = "";
}, false);

On jsfiddle

I have no way to test with IE, but theoretically this should work. If IE is different enough that the Javascript version does not work because MS have done it in a different way, the jquery method should in my opinion deal with it for you, else it would be worth pointing it out to the jquery team along with the method that IE requires. (I see people saying "this won't work on IE", but no vanilla javascript to show how it does work on IE (supposedly a "security feature"?), perhaps report it as a bug to MS too (if they would count it as such), so that it gets fixed in any newer release)

Like mentioned in another answer, a post on the jquery forum

 if ($.browser.msie) {
      $('#file').replaceWith($('#file').clone());
 } else {
      $('#file').val('');
 }

But jquery have now removed support for browser testing, jquery.browser.

This javascript solution also worked for me, it is the vanilla equivalent of the jquery.replaceWith method.

document.getElementById("clear").addEventListener("click", function () {
    var fileopen = document.getElementById("fileopen"),
        clone = fileopen.cloneNode(true);

    fileopen.parentNode.replaceChild(clone, fileopen);
}, false);

On jsfiddle

The important thing to note is that the cloneNode method does not preserve associated event handlers.

See this example.

document.getElementById("fileopen").addEventListener("change", function () {
    alert("change");
}, false);

document.getElementById("clear").addEventListener("click", function () {
    var fileopen = document.getElementById("fileopen"),
        clone = fileopen.cloneNode(true);

    fileopen.parentNode.replaceChild(clone, fileopen);
}, false);

On jsfiddle

But jquery.clone offers this ^[*1]

$("#fileopen").change(function () {
    alert("change");
});

$("#clear").click(function () {
    var fileopen = $("#fileopen"),
        clone = fileopen.clone(true);

    fileopen.replaceWith(clone);
});

On jsfiddle

^[*1] jquery is able to do this if the events were added by jquery's methods as it keeps a copy in jquery.data, it does not work otherwise, so it's a bit of a cheat/work-around and means things are not compatible between different methods or libraries.

document.getElementById("fileopen").addEventListener("change", function () {
    alert("change");
}, false);

$("#clear").click(function () {
    var fileopen = $("#fileopen"),
        clone = fileopen.clone(true);

    fileopen.replaceWith(clone);
});

On jsfiddle

You can not get the attached event handler direct from the element itself.

Here is the general principle in vanilla javascript, this is how jquery an all other libraries do it (roughly).

(function () {
    var listeners = [];

    function getListeners(node) {
        var length = listeners.length,
            i = 0,
            result = [],
            listener;

        while (i < length) {
            listener = listeners[i];
            if (listener.node === node) {
                result.push(listener);
            }

            i += 1;
        }

        return result;
    }

    function addEventListener(node, type, handler) {
        listeners.push({
            "node": node,
                "type": type,
                "handler": handler
        });

        node.addEventListener(type, handler, false);
    }

    function cloneNode(node, deep, withEvents) {
        var clone = node.cloneNode(deep),
            attached,
            length,
            evt,
            i = 0;

        if (withEvents) {
            attached = getListeners(node);
            if (attached) {
                length = attached.length;
                while (i < length) {
                    evt = attached[i];
                    addEventListener(clone, evt.type, evt.handler);

                    i += 1;
                }
            }
        }

        return clone;
    }

    addEventListener(document.getElementById("fileopen"), "change", function () {
        alert("change");
    });

    addEventListener(document.getElementById("clear"), "click", function () {
        var fileopen = document.getElementById("fileopen"),
            clone = cloneNode(fileopen, true, true);

        fileopen.parentNode.replaceChild(clone, fileopen);
    });
}());

On jsfiddle

Of course jquery and other libraries have all the other support methods required for maintaining such a list, this is just a demonstration.

Answer 2

I ended up with this:

if($.browser.msie || $.browser.webkit){
  // doesn't work with opera and FF
  $(this).after($(this).clone(true)).remove();  
}else{
  this.setAttribute('type', 'text');
  this.setAttribute('type', 'file'); 
}

may not be the most elegant solution, but it work as far as I can tell.

Answer 3

Make it asynchronous, and reset it after the button's desired actions have been done.

    <!-- Html Markup --->
    <input id="btn" type="file" value="Button" onchange="function()" />

    <script>
    //Function
    function function(e) {

        //input your coding here           

        //Reset
        var controlInput = $("#btn");
        controlInput.replaceWith(controlInput = controlInput.val('').clone(true));
    } 
    </script>

Answer 4

I have been looking for simple and clean way to clear HTML file input, the above answers are great, but none of them really answers what i'm looking for, until i came across on the web with simple an elegant way to do it :

var $input = $("#control");

$input.replaceWith($input.val('').clone(true));

all the credit go's to Chris Coyier.

// Referneces
var control = $("#control"),
    clearBn = $("#clear");

// Setup the clear functionality
clearBn.on("click", function(){
    control.replaceWith( control.val('').clone( true ) );
});

// Some bound handlers to preserve when cloning
control.on({
    change: function(){ console.log( "Changed" ) },
     focus: function(){ console.log(  "Focus"  ) }
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<input type="file" id="control">
<br><br>
<a href="#" id="clear">Clear</a>

Answer 5

I tried with the most of the techniques the users mentioned, but none of they worked in all browsers. i.e: clone() doesn't work in FF for file inputs. I ended up copying manually the file input, and then replacing the original with the copied one. It works in all browsers.

<input type="file" id="fileID" class="aClass" name="aName"/>

var $fileInput=$("#fileID");
var $fileCopy=$("<input type='file' class='"+$fileInput.attr("class")+" id='fileID' name='"+$fileInput.attr("name")+"'/>");
$fileInput.replaceWith($fileCopy);

Answer 6

I have used https://github.com/malsup/form/blob/master/jquery.form.js, which has a function called clearInputs(), which is crossbrowser, well tested, easy to use and handles also IE issue and hidden fields clearing if needed. Maybe a little long solution to only clear file input, but if you are dealing with crossbrowser file uploads, then this solution is recommended.

The usage is easy:

// Clear all file fields:
$("input:file").clearInputs();

// Clear also hidden fields:
$("input:file").clearInputs(true);

// Clear specific fields:
$("#myfilefield1,#myfilefield2").clearInputs();

/**
 * Clears the selected form elements.
 */
$.fn.clearFields = $.fn.clearInputs = function(includeHidden) {
    var re = /^(?:color|date|datetime|email|month|number|password|range|search|tel|text|time|url|week)$/i; // 'hidden' is not in this list
    return this.each(function() {
        var t = this.type, tag = this.tagName.toLowerCase();
        if (re.test(t) || tag == 'textarea') {
            this.value = '';
        }
        else if (t == 'checkbox' || t == 'radio') {
            this.checked = false;
        }
        else if (tag == 'select') {
            this.selectedIndex = -1;
        }
        else if (t == "file") {
            if (/MSIE/.test(navigator.userAgent)) {
                $(this).replaceWith($(this).clone(true));
            } else {
                $(this).val('');
            }
        }
        else if (includeHidden) {
            // includeHidden can be the value true, or it can be a selector string
            // indicating a special test; for example:
            //  $('#myForm').clearForm('.special:hidden')
            // the above would clean hidden inputs that have the class of 'special'
            if ( (includeHidden === true && /hidden/.test(t)) ||
                 (typeof includeHidden == 'string' && $(this).is(includeHidden)) )
                this.value = '';
        }
    });
};